The online home of the self-published comics & prose anthology, Warrior27, an homage to Britain's early-80s comic magazine, Warrior - along with the various writings, musings, and miscellany of Dan Fleming and Chris Beckett.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

I’m not one to watch
things in a timely fashion. Family
(being a father and a husband) and writing come first. And reading, that’s ahead of watching TV and
movies. This means I am rarely “in the
loop” with what’s happening. But the
launch of Daredevil on Netflix spurred me to go back and catch up on some
recent Flash episodes.

Okay, let’s
backtrack. [apologies: wordy bitch
ahead]

The rush of
adulation for Daredevil on Netflix, at least in my little corner of the
internet, has been overwhelming. Marvel
does it again! That hallway fight scene
is the best in a decade! I can’t wait
for more! Got the character right! And, according to some (okay, one person),
Daredevil is the best show since “The Wire.”
Yes, I heard that on a podcast I enjoy listening to. I watched the first episode. It took me four nights. And I was not engaged to watch anymore after
that. Nothing against the creators—I think
they did a fine job translating the grim ‘n gritty Daredevil to television,
though there were some campy-feeling moments, particularly with the
brooooaaaaadddd villains. These are not
nuanced characters, ala The Wire. But it’s
a comic book adaptation, we don’t need nuance.
Anyway. I’m not here to hate on
the thing. It is well done, and it is “real.” But it’s not what I want in my superheroes
right now. Grim ‘n gritty is fine, but
remember, there are other tones and palettes available to you as a
creator.

Which brings me to
the CW’s Flash.

I watched the first
four episodes and enjoyed them, but as I state above, my time is limited and I
fell off that train. [full disclosure time,
if you didn’t know this,
the Flash is my favorite all-time superhero]. But I read about the Flash’s recent
travails and travels through time, and that piqued my interest. Then all of this gushing over DD, and my lack
of interest in it, got me to casting my eye back across the spectrum to the
Flash. So, I dove back in with those time
travel episodes: “Out of Time” and “Rogue
Time.”

Wow! They leveled up with these two episodes. I’m impressed with how much of the comic book
mythology the creators and the network have been willing to include in this
series. We have the rogues, with their
crazy costumes and powers, a villain from the future secretly hiding in their
midst, the promise (possibly) of other lesser-known superheroes like Firestorm
and Vibe, and now we finally see the Flash manage to go back in time. This is some fun stuff ß
emphasis on “FUN.”

“Out of Time”
I loved this episode. The way things
played out did not feel forced at all.
The threat of Mark Mardon [the Weather Wizard “been waitin’ to use that
since week one”], the investigation into Harrison Wells at Iris’s newspaper, the
devastation wreaked by Mardon, the death of Cisco at Wells’s hand, it all held
my interest, and the pain suffered by Joe West and Captain Singh felt real.
Then, when we got to the end and Barry had to stop the tidal wave by
running back and forth so fast that he would create a wind that would dissipate
the wave’s energy and he ended up rushing through a wormhole to twenty-four
hours in the past—that was pretty great.
But the best moment of the entire episode, for me, was when he revealed
his heroic identity to Iris. That moment hit me right in the gut. His line [paraphrased] “I didn’t mean for you
to find out like this,” and the reaction shot as Barry quick-changed and rushed
to save the city…beautiful.

“Rogue Time”

So, now that Barry
has rushed back, a day into the past, he feels he must try to head off all the
destruction he knows is coming. He
throws Mark Mardon into the “prison” they’ve set up at S.T.A.R. Labs and
figures all is good. Dr. Wells warns him
that time will find a way to set things right.
And he is correct. Heat Wave and
Captain Cold return, bringing along Leonard Snart’s little sister, who becomes
the Golden Glider—or a replica thereof as she’s not properly named in this
episode and does not come with ice skates as her counterpart did in the
comics. And things do not go well. Barry manages to save many from the physical
harm they encountered the last time he ran through this day, but he is not safe
from the emotional fallout of restating his affection for Iris—who admitted her
own love for him when her father’s life and the lives of all of Central City
were at stake the “previous day” but did not feel similarly in this renewed
day. It’s an interesting look at the consequences
of mucking with the timeline, in this reality, as well as a fix for the death
of Cisco and other bits of collateral damage from the previous episode that
works perfectly in this context. Oh, and
we get Captain Cold and Heat Wave with new guns, thanks to their kidnapping of
Cisco, along with the Golden Glider’s gun as well. And the Rogues Gallery gets named. Yeah, I’m geeking out. But this show is so damn fun.

The difference
between Flash and Daredevil comes down to the tone of the show, really. And right now, I’m looking for something
other than what has become the default for many, many superhero comics of the
past couple decades. I love how bright this
show is, how ebullient a character Barry Allen is. There are still serious things happening, but
it’s all coated with the wonder and excitement of a superhero comic book. And that, to me, makes all the difference in
the world.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

With apologies to Dave the Thune
(as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).

WRITING:

Every day.1000 words.That’s the goal.

Been working on my pitch for Oni,
which shared the guidelinesfor their upcoming open submission
period.They can be found here.An interview with the editorial staff can be
found here , full of good information for others looking to send in a comic proposal.And they have been answering questions
through their tumblr account, in order to clarify exactly what they are looking for.

For me, this is pretty
exciting.It’s been years since Oni has
allowed unsolicited submissions, and they have published a lot of amazing titles
I’ve enjoyed, through the years, including Queen & Country, Oni Double
Feature, Volcanic Revolver, and The Bunker.So having the opportunity to share my work with them and know that it
will get a proper assessment is stellar.

This is also the point where I can
try and “make my own luck.”I admit, I
didn’t fully understand this phrase when I first started writing and submitting
stories to publications and editors.To
my mind, it made me think of those stories where people use a bit of subterfuge
or “hutzpah” to get an in with a publisher, and having gotten their foot in
that door are able to prove themselves worthy of the opportunity.But now, having been working at my writing
for a few years, I realize it’s far more than that.I have a backlog of stories on my hard drive,
in various stages of completion, as well as published stories to my name, which
means when an opportunity of this nature comes about, I probably already have
something that will fit – which I do.At
this point, I’m already ahead of the game because I’ve been working on this
story for a while.I just need to hammer
it into a pitch that will engage the editors while making sure it fits with
their guidelines.If I were starting
from scratch, I would be hard pressed to get anything in by the deadline.Making my own luck, as best I’m able.

READING:

So, I’m reading The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer for the first time, and I’m really enjoying it.I love Mark Twain’s use of language – in the
dialogue, in the descriptions, in the quiet moments – it’s all beautiful,
almost elevated in its poetic nature, while still feeling authentic.Not sure now why I have not read this book
before.

Xenozoic by Mark
Schulz.This was a favorite comic of
mine, back in the day, that sadly did not come out often enough, for my
taste.Schulz may be one of the best
illustrators ever to work in the medium, but it came at the price of anything
resembling swiftness.His pages, and the
panels on those pages, are beautiful and he doesn’t short change readers at
all, with a wealth of details all painstakingly delineated with a precision
that is jaw-dropping.This guy can
draw.And what he drew—dinosaurs in a
future, five hundred years after the cataclysm that threatened to bring about
the extinction of the human race.But
now we live alongside these giant beasts from the past, as one man, Jack
Tenrec, works to keep the balance with nature that can ensure humankind’s
survival, while a beautiful ambassador from a neighboring tribe comes to lay
the groundwork for a peaceful coexistence that might also be mutually
beneficial to both tribes.Of course,
the two become enamored of one another, but Schulz keeps that simmering within
the subtext, for the most part, crafting a mature relationship between these
two strong characters that is engaging and distinct, for these aspects of
it.I forgot how much I enjoyed this
book.It was great to re-read these
stories again.Well worth seeking out,
if you’ve never read them before.

WATCHING:

District 9 from director Neil
Blomkamp, co-written by Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell.This continues my foray into “recent” science
fiction films I missed.I enjoyed
this.I found the story engaging, even
if the metaphor (though a worthy one) was a bit heavy-handed.The effects were well done.I appreciated the design of the aliens.The villains were a bit one-dimensional, but
what are you going to do?Not great, but
definitely worth watching.Next up, some
Val Lewton classics.

MISCELLANY:

Something I managed to forget to include
in the last “What It Is,” was the latest offering here at Warrio27:A Fistful of Single Issues – Superhero Comics.These are 6 (had to have an honorable
mention) of my favorite single issue cape comics, the ones I go to when I have
to read something exciting that will get my inner child all giddy.Including work by Alan Moore, Grant Morrison,
Todd McFarlane, Larry Hama, and a host of others, these are the comics I would
bring with me to that theoretical desert isle.And they would keep me pumped about comics for a long, long time.

[interestingly, though
unsurprisingly, three of these books were published in 1984, when I first began
collecting comics, while the other three were published between 1988-89, which
goes to prove the adage that a comic collector’s “Golden Age” is usually that
period when they first began reading]

SIGN OFF:

As always, check out my friends – Brad& Matt, Darren Smith (with Bryan Young on accompaniment, when he’s
available)and Don McMillan, as well as
Dan’s foray into podcastdom, the Potato League Podcast, for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and
geeky, and we'll see what's what in seven.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

With apologies to Dave the Thune
(as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).

WRITING:

Every day.1000 words.That’s the goal.

At last check-in, two weeks ago,
I’d completed the first draft of the novel.Now I’m onto the pitch for my time travel “epic,” refining and rewriting
it in anticipation of Oni’s open submission call next month.I’ve got a solid premise, I believe, with an
engaging four-issue arc that can work as a standalone story, but is also
intended as the opening narrative of a much longer story, in the vein of Sandman
and Queen & Country, two primary influences on this project.

I don’t know exactly what Oni will
be looking for, so I’m working up various items for inclusion, a synopsis of
the opening story, a detailed issue-by-issue breakdown, character profiles, a
final script for issue one (which I workshopped at Comics Experience,
where I got some invaluable critiques that improved it immensely).Some of these aspects, I already had written
in a rough form and only need to revise, while others I am writing up for the
first time.The great thing about this
is that I’ve discovered a lot about the story and been able to flesh it out
more fully, so that when I do submit to Oni, I will have a far better
understanding of where I am going with it, which, I hope, will improve the
chances of getting picked up.If I
don’t, though, I may turn this into a novel at some point down the line.

READING:

Finished up Jhumpa Lahiri’s The
Namesake this week, and I had two thoughts: 1) what an amazing and
beautifully written book, 2) why am I even trying to write?

That second thought is one that
occurs a lot, especially when I finish a book as stellar as this.The connections Lahiri makes, her use of
language and the perfect balance of detail and metaphor, and the facility with
which she opens and closes a scene—all spectacular.If you’re looking for a moving, engaging
read, pick this up.

I also re-read Elektra: Assassin
this week.I didn’t connect with this
work the first time I read it and subsequently sold my trade collection of
it.But I recently picked up the
individual issues on ebay and am I glad I did.Miller’s writing, specifically his dialogue and captions with their
halting cadence revealing the truth over the course of dozens of bits of text,
is superb.And the art by Bill
Sienkiewicz is just damn beautiful.I
love his art, and he is just on the top of his game in this book.Amazing stuff.If you like over-violent, satirical stories
and are a fan of comics, and you haven’t read this yet, do yourself a favor and
seek it out.Now.

WATCHING:

Watched Live. Die. Repeat./Edge
of Tomorrow/I Don’t Know What Title I am? this past week, and I really
enjoyed it.(Sure, there’s a theme
running through most of these “updates” about how much I enjoyed
reading/watching/hearing something, but that’s because I tend to be picky, and
I also don’t want to spend much time on anything that I found less than
enjoyable)The conceit of time travel,
as a story engine, is difficult to “get right,” or at least to utilize in a
manner that doesn’t pull the audience right out of the story (fingers crossed
with my comic pitch above).But with
this film, they did a great job of engaging viewers with the visuals and the
drama of the situation, while offering a plausible explanation for the time
travel (though, to be fair, it wasn’t so much time travel as a temporal loop,
wherein Tom Cruise’s character repeated the same day, over and over, until that
chain is broken).I really enjoyed how
we got to see Cruise’s character learn from each jump back to the same day, as
he died again and again but retained his memories of those previous days, and
the manner that the filmmakers revealed this worked well.It kept me interested, provided the right
amount of drama and intrigue, and offered questions that demanded answers.And, as the guys at Travis Bickle on the Riviera stated, we got to see Tom Cruise become Tom Cruise.His character arc was really interesting,
something you don’t necessarily get in most action films.Fun stuff.

MISCELLANY:

Sox are in first place!I’ll take that.I’m not expecting much from the team this
year, their pitching could use a shot in the arm (pun intended), but the
offense should/could be exciting.We’ll
seeAt least I’m not a Cubs fan (sorry,
Dan)

The new Star Wars 7 trailer
dropped.And it is magnificent.The initial teaser did nothing for me.It didn’t feel like Star Wars, and after the
prequels I felt too burned to give in to the dark side.But this one kicked me right in my nostalgic,
five-year-old self’s heart, and I am all in now.That opening shot is what did it for
me—seeing such familiar imagery, the desert, the X-Wing, and the Star Destroyer
shown in such a wholly new context, that was exciting.Add to that, the fact that the “soccer ball
droid,” BB-8, is a practical effect, a puppet, and not a CGI effect, that
cements it.Abrams knows how to rummage
through my memories and pluck just the right strings to make my heart sing, and
he’s doing it again.Can’t wait for this
now.

SIGN OFF:

As always, check out my friends – Brad& Matt and Darren Smith (with Bryan Young on accompaniment, when he’s
available) and Don McMillan, as well as
Dan’s foray into podcastdom, the Potato League Podcast, for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and
geeky, and we'll see what's what in seven.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Conceived and used with the
permission of Matthew Constantine and Brad Gullickson, the original dorks.

Everyone has a “Top 5.” But Brad and Matt, choosing to walk a
different path, amended that to “A Fistful…” over at their blog, In the Mouth
of Dorkness. A film-centric blog where
they also discuss comics and books and TV, these two regularly share their top
5, ranging from “Heroic Kids” to “Spies” to “Summer Movies” to “Punches” to all
things in between. Always fun, often
insightful, and something I hope to regularly pilfer for Warrior27. As they say:
If you’re going to steal, steal
from those you know relatively well, who will not sue you.

I love comics. Been collecting since 1984 (31 years for
those who don’t want to do the math). I
have sixteen or so longboxes full of single issues, not to mention the
collections I own and those I’ve read through the library. I’ve ingested a helluva lot of comic books,
across a wide swathe of genres and styles and formats—superheroes, mini-comics,
autobiographical, black and white, fully painted, photorealistic linework or
animation styles, manga, etc. etc. etc.
And for the most part, those comics have been at the very least
entertaining, and at their best, mind-blowing (see: Alan Moore & Grant Morrison). Even with all that, there are still only a
relatively small number of comics I can re-read and be exhilarated with the experience
every single time. So, despite the tens
of thousands of comics I have read, it was fairly easy to narrow down those
five (+ 1) single issues of superhero comics that I go to whenever I want to
recapture my youth.

Note: Some might argue that
I took slight liberty with the definition of a superhero comic in some of the
choices below. Technically speaking,
there are two Vertigo books in the bunch, Swamp
Thing & Animal Man, but both of these issues were published before the
mature readers imprint was implemented.
And though Swamp Thing does not wear a costume and was actually created
for DC’s horror line, I’m going to allow it because it’s my site, my post, and
my rules, plus the Justice League and Batman make significant appearances in
Moore’s run. So, case closed. And G.I. Joe—don’t know that there’s been a
cooler superhero team in comics’ history with all the code names, cool skills,
and various costumes. But I’ve rambled
on too long, something I am fairly good at when I sit down to the keyboard, so
let’s get to it…

MY TOP FIVE SUPERHERO COMICS (in no particular order):

Incredible Hulk 340—

“Vicious
Circle.” Written by Peter David; Art by
Todd McFarlane

Wolverine. Hulk.
Battle royale. ‘Nuff said.

I
don’t know how many times I’ve read this issue, but it’s easily a couple
dozen. This is a visceral story, with
Hulk and Logan beating the snot out of one another as they both try to prove
their superiority over the other. Peter
David’s script is great, but what really makes this work, for me, is Todd
McFarlane’s art (something I’m not often heard saying). His frenetic, overly hatched style imbues the
narrative with a frenzied agitation that enhances what could easily be seen as
a simple punch ‘em up. I’m not a huge
fan of McFarlane’s work, but I love his Hulk, and he puts it all on display in
this issue. Great, fun, cathartic
stuff.

Superman 400—

“The
Living Legends of Superman.” Written by Elliot
S! Maggin; Art by a plethora of comic giants

I
wrote about this comic for our 400th post. It is easily one of my all-time favorite
comics. The variety of stories on
display, with art from a murderer’s row of talent, including Frank Miller,
Steranko, Al Williamson, et al. This
comic, more than any other, beautifully captures the wonder and grandeur of
Superman, while also evincing the humanity that is the core of his
character. Ever wondered why Superman is
the pinnacle of superheroes? Read this
comic to find out. And if you want a
more detailed look at this issue, go here.

For
comic readers of my generation, few single issues have been more influential
than this one – the Silent Issue. Relatively early in the run, Larry Hama not
only wrote but penciled this issue, wherein Snake-Eyes parachuted into Destro’s
castle to rescue Scarlett, and a mysterious connection with the Cobra ninja,
Storm Shadow, is revealed at the end. As
the title suggests, this issue is entirely devoid of word—no dialogue, no
captions, no thought balloons—and it works amazingly well. The body language, the action, the facial
expressions, all add up to a very emotional and exciting adventure. G.I. Joe was a gateway drug for many comic
readers of the mid-80s, and this was the pinnacle of that magnificent run by
Larry Hama and a host of talented artists.

This
comic was my introduction to Alan Moore and his writing. At the end of these 23 pages, I was all in
with respect to Moore. The issue opens
with Swamp Thing, dead. And from there,
Moore, with lush, unsettling art from Bissette and Totleben, overturns all that
readers and fans thought they knew about the muck monster, drastically resetting
the status quo without ever changing what has come before. The pacing, the imagery, the revelations
throughout these couple dozen pages all combine to create a suspenseful,
engaging, and exciting story. Probably
my favorite comic on this list.

As
Moore did with his second issue of Swamp
Thing above, Grant Morrison, also early in his career, completely upended
expectations in this fifth issue of his seminal run and provided a powerful
emotional reaction in his readership (or in me, at the very least). I have never felt such pangs of sorrow, when
reading a comic book, as I did within the first ten pages of this issue. Animal Man is confronted with a being from a
parallel universe—a coyote-like being who comes from a Looney Tunes
universe—who relays the injustices and physical abuses he’s endured on his
alternate world to our hero, only to discover upon completing his narrative, at
the same time the audience does, that Animal Man cannot understand anything he
said. This revelation hit me like a dead
weight falling on my chest. It was so
painful, so real, and yet, did not feel forced.
Morrison, with art from Truog and Hazlewood, completely sold this moment,
and I knew I’d found another writer whose work I needed to keep an eye out for.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Miracleman 16—

“Olympus.” Written by Alan Moore; Art by John Totleben

For
the longest time this was the only issue of Miracleman I owned. The culmination of Moore’s story, it was a final
issue that tied up loose ends, while leaving some dangling, with which I hadn’t
a proper context. Miracleman and
Miraclewoman made love in the sky, which the populace experienced as some
mirthful lightshow, if memory serves me well.
Miracleman had created a utopia; Charles Manson was even rehabilitated;
and now he could look down from his amazing crystal palace on high and
appreciate what he had built for humanity.
It was epic, with Moore’s signature use of language on display, and the
art from Totleben was breathtaking. I
read this single issue multiple times before I was ever able to find the
collections of the earlier issues, and it is one of the singular memories from
my hobby that is seared into my brain and brings a smile to my face and a chill
to my skin every time I think of it.
Love. This. Book.

[for
me, MM is Moore’s “final word” on superheroes, not Watchmen, and someday
I’ll get around to writing that post here]

Sunday, April 5, 2015

With apologies to Dave the Thune
(as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).

WRITING:

Every day.1000 words.That’s the goal.

I missed last week because I had to
keep writing on the novel.All along,
I’ve know how it would end and had a handful of landmarks I was always moving
toward, but most of the middle was just “made up” as I went along.Last week, though, I hit the point where I
knew I had only three chapters left and exactly what needed to occur in those
three chapters.So, I pressed on.And this past Friday I wrapped it up with the
last couple thousand words.426
manuscript pages, 114,300 words, and roughly six months of work (though there
were short breaks to write pieces for W27, as well as those few weeks in
December where I focused on preparing for Christmas, including writing letters
from Santa to my three boys).It feels
really good to have arrived at the end.

The year before, I wrote a draft of
a YA novel, but about halfway into that, I realized it was far too visual to be
a novel and would work better as a television series.But I pressed on to prove to myself that I
could complete a novel—something I’d begun three times prior without success,
often stopping around 100 pages into the manuscript—and in finishing that, I
knew this story was something I could also complete.This narrative is far stronger than last
year’s, and I look forward to getting it “up to snuff” for submission.But that’s months away.Time to let it sit and percolate.I’ll return to it in October for my first
revision, and depending on how long that takes and how long it takes to write
the next novel (a crime story), maybe the following summer for a third pass to
finalize it.For now, I need to work on
polishing up a science fiction comic proposal I have sitting on the hard drive,
because Oni will be opening up for submissions in May, and plan on being ready
for that.

READING:

Finished reading Ghettoside
by Jill Leovy.Looking at the epidemic
of the murder of young black man, particularly black-on-black murder, through
the lens of a single L.A. murder of a police detective’s son and the southern
district detective who brings his killers to justice, this is a fascinating,
heart-wrenching, anger-inducing book that will make you think.It also posits the idea that this is a
catastrophe that could be turned around, relatively easily.If less emphasis were placed on prevention
over a proper and quick reaction, if homicide detectives weren’t shunted to the
side lacking necessary resources, IF BLACK LIVES WEREN’T SACRIFICED behind
utter bullshit “explanations,” this would not be the tragedy it has become and
continues to be.

The focus, in many departments, is
on bumping up the stats—solving the easily solved crimes, creating crimes where
none may be when they stop-and-frisk or focus on the jaywalking rather than the
killing—rather than on the more deadly, more heinous, more important crime of
murder.Overtime is cut (this is not a
9-5 job), resources are misappropriated (detectives get promotions in L.A. to
high-profile districts where the murders are few and far between, but involve
glitzy white people), and they focus on being “tough on crime,” a euphemism for
making the punishments more stringent rather than making the punishment
swifter.

There are many common sense points
made in this book—the swiftness of justice trumps the harshness of the
punishment, when a people already on the fringes of society feel as if the law
does not care about them they take justice into their own hands, and others—all
borne out by the truths we see on America’s urban streets as well as the truths
seen in historical texts, that it makes you question what the hell those in
charge are thinking.The answer is that,
either they don’t know how to think critically, or they only know how to think
with their wallet.

WATCHING:

Watched The Signal, based on
recommendations and an interview with one of the writers from the ITMODcast,
and I loved it.A fairly simple science
fiction story that was crafted with a lot of intelligence and skill, Laurence
Fishburne is great in it.The setting
and scenario feel fresh, the acting and directing was all good to great, and
the effects were superb.The creators
manage to make it all feel grounded, with the few twists and revelations
perfectly paced so that they surprise without feeling out of place.And they nailed the ending, giving us a
heartfelt, emotional conclusion while opening things up for possible
sequels.I’d like to return to this
world and hope another film might come from these guys.Might be interesting to jump way ahead, a
couple of decades or more, and see what’s what.We’ll see.Check it out.

MISCELLANY:

Opening Day!

This is my religion, though, like
my lapsed Christianity, I don’t find the time to worship as often as I’d
like.But that doesn’t matter. Baseball’s
back, and that is something for which there should be much rejoicing.Go Sox!

SIGN OFF:

As always, check out my friends – Brad& Matt and Don McMillan, as well as Dan’s foray into podcastdom, the Potato League Podcast, for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and
geeky, and we'll see what's what in seven.